Humphrey Borlase

Humphrey Borlase (also Humphry Borlase; died 1709) was a Cornish landowner and politician of Treludderow in St Newlyn East and Truthan in St Erme. A member of the Borlase family of Treludderow, he represented the Cornish borough of Mitchell in the Parliament of England from 1673 to 1679 and was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1686. During the reign of James II he was one of the king's regulators of corporations in Cornwall, and later antiquarian accounts described him as a supporter of James after the Glorious Revolution.

The Borlases held a leasehold interest in the episcopal manor of Cargoll, while Treludderow formed the family's principal landed estate. Borlase subsequently made Truthan his main residence. Later sources also associated him with purported Jacobite titles, usually styled Lord Borlase of Borlase and Baron of Mitchell or Baron Michell.

Family and early life

Humphrey was the son and heir of Nicholas Borlase of Treludderow and his wife Catherine Bury. A later compilation of Jacobite peerages records Nicholas as dying in 1677 and Humphrey as succeeding him as heir. Humphrey's date of birth is not securely established.

In 1652 Borlase was admitted to Gray's Inn. The admission register describes him as the son and heir of Nicholas Borlase of Cornwall.

Borlase married Anne Winter, daughter of Sir John Winter of Lydney, Gloucestershire. Ruvigny gives the date of their marriage settlement as 3 June 1663. William Copeland Borlase, drawing on earlier family manuscripts and records, likewise states that Humphrey married a daughter of Sir John Winter and that she had been a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria.

Estates and Cargoll

Truthan Manor in St Erme. Thomas Tonkin recorded that Humphrey Borlase made Truthan his principal residence.

The family's estates were closely connected with the manor of Cargoll, an extensive possession of the Bishop of Exeter. Thomas Tonkin, writing in the early eighteenth century, stated that the part of St Erme within Cargoll was held by the Borlases of Treludderow on a lease for lives, with the Jago family holding under them. Daniel and Samuel Lysons similarly recorded in 1814 that the manor of Cargoll had formerly been leased to the Borlase family.

During the English Civil War and Interregnum, Nicholas Borlase's estates had suffered sequestration. Tonkin related that John Jago obtained possession of much of the property, including Truthan, but that Nicholas recovered it after the Restoration. W. C. Borlase's account, citing the same earlier manuscript tradition together with contemporary records, states that Nicholas then settled the recovered barton on Humphrey at the time of Humphrey's marriage.

Tonkin credited Humphrey with building a new house at Truthan and making it his permanent residence. The identification of Humphrey with Treludderow nevertheless continued: a post-nuptial settlement dated 16 October 1701 names him as "Humphry Borlase of Treluddroe, esquire".

By the later part of his life Borlase had disposed of his interest in Truthan. Tonkin records that he sold his copyhold lease there to the Williams family.

Parliamentary career

Borlase entered Parliament for the small Cornish borough of Mitchell in 1673 and sat until 1679. Mitchell, situated partly in Newlyn parish, had a very small and disputed electorate and became notorious for struggles over the extent of its parliamentary franchise.

Modern study of the surviving Mitchell poll material by the historian James Harris has shown that the borough's politics were substantially more contested than its later reputation as a simple pocket borough suggests. Poll sheets survive for elections in 1673, twice in 1679, and in 1681. Borlase was no longer one of the sitting members after the elections of 1679. In the disputed contest of 1681, Harris's reconstruction of the poll concludes that Borlase would have been comfortably elected had the wider franchise claimed by his side been accepted. Tonkin subsequently described him as sheriff during the last two years of the reign of James II.

Borlase was also involved in James II's intervention in Cornish municipal government. Davies Gilbert's edition of the Cornish parish histories lists "Humphrey Borlase, esq. of Treludrow, Sheriff" among James II's regulators of corporations in Cornwall.

Jacobite association

Later Cornish antiquarian accounts portrayed Borlase as a committed supporter of James II after the king's overthrow. Tonkin described him as being "deeply engaged" in the interest of the former king.

A tradition also developed that James II, after his deposition, granted Borlase a Jacobite peerage. The Lysons brothers wrote in 1814 that "Humphrey Borlase, of Cargol" was said to have been created Baron Michell by James after his abdication.

Marriage, children and death

Humphrey and Anne Borlase had children, but none survived to inherit the estate. Tonkin states that their children died in infancy with the exception of a son, Nicholas Borlase, who survived into youth but predeceased his father.

Borlase died without surviving issue in 1709 and was buried at Newlyn in Cornwall. Ruvigny records his will as dated 20 January 1704 and proved on 1 December 1709. His death brought the direct senior line of the seventeenth-century Borlases of Treludderow to an end.